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Throwing away energy will probably not be a thing once the factories for hydrogen and ammonia generating equipment and desalination equipment have ramped up. H
by ncmncm 4y ago
Throwing away energy will probably not be a thing once the factories for hydrogen and ammonia generating equipment and desalination equipment have ramped up.
H2, NH3, and clean H2O are so useful there will always be a market for as much as you can produce at zero marginal cost. I.e., once you have the equipment, which you needed anyway, it makes no sense to operate it less than you can afford to, even when the price of those drops to near nothing.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoYou could argue that running those systems at anything less than 100% capacity is just another kind of waste, which would be true. It's all just trade-offs. Generating energy that isn't used, or not using assets to their full capacity is just something to deal with based on costs and benefits. We have plenty of waste and slack in the world today, and renewables seem likely to radically reduce that, so no point getting caught up in worrying about minor inefficiencies. 10 steps forward, one step back is still forward motion.
- ncmncm 4y agoAgreed. Just noting that drawing down your ammonia storage to run ammonia synthesis for sale would make no sense. But an aluminum plant might reasonably burn aluminum powder to keep its furnaces hot, when spot price peaks.